Pete's Dragon

8/29/16

Levi Alexander stars in a scene from the movie "Pete's Dragon." The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

The classic boy-and-his-dog story assumes outsized
proportions in this generally warmhearted fantasy adventure,
a "reimagining" of the 1977 Disney musical. This go-round,
song and dance have been jettisoned, and hokeyness gives way
to thrilling action and tear-jerking moments. Orphaned by a
tragic accident, a toddler (Levi Alexander) wanders into a
remote forest in the Pacific Northwest where he's raised by a
friendly green dragon possessing the habits and charm of a
basset hound. Six years on, the pair (its human half now
played by Oakes Fegley) are discovered by a kindly forest
ranger (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her sympathetic woodcarver
father (Robert Redford), who then try to keep a trigger-happy
hunter (Wes Urban) from capturing the beast. It's a very tall
tale, but a pleasantly fanciful one, directed at a gentle
pace by David Lowery. The fact that Howard's character
already lives with her logger fiance (Wes Bentley) represents
a strangely incongruous situation for a children's movie,
however. Though the precise nature of their relationship is,
of course, never specified, the inclusion of this arrangement
sadly bars endorsement for impressionable kids.